Seven Heaven For Posh

Posh are in seventh heaven following their demolition of Ipswich Town at London Road.

A hat-trick from Lee Tomlin and a brace for Paul Taylor and Grant McCann sealed an excellent and deserved win for Peterborough against Ipswich who led through an incredible 25-yard volley from Keith Andrews.

Ipswich took the lead in the 23rd minute when a poor kick from Posh keeper Jones fell to Ipswich and with it sitting up nicely for Andrews, he volleyed the ball in off the post for the lead.

Unfortunately for Ipswich, that is as good as it got. The lead lasted just seven minutes when good work by Little, who just managed to keep the ball in play by the corner flag, went past Cresswell before playing the ball to Boyd. A fortunate bounce off Boyd fell to Paul Talyor who hit it first time and saw his shot fly in the net off the post.

Ipswich were struggling to keep up with Posh and they fell behind in the 38th minute when a sublime ball from McCann played in Lee Tomlin who beat off the challenge of defender Carlos Edwards before rifling his shot into the top right corner of the net.

Paul Jewell had changed his defence around for this game, but things didn’t work and some calamitous play between the centre backs ended up with Taylor intercepting the ball and racing in to the area before delicately lifting the ball over the advancing keeper and in to the net for a 3-1 lead.

Peterborough went 4-1 up in the 42nd minute when McCann again found Tomlin and the attacking midfielder broke clear to drill a right-foot shot into the net.

Ipswich were looking to get to the break without any more problems, but things went from bad to worse on the stroke of half time when Lee Martin lost the plot and went in hard on Little and was shown a straight red card.

Paul Jewell looked to change things around and tighten up the defence as he brought on defender Tommy Smith for young winger Josh Carson. Jewell’s plans went up in smoke within a couple of minutes of the restart as Smith left the field before he’d even touched the ball having bundled over Lee Tomlin who was clean through on goal.

Smith couldn’t complain about the red card but Ipswich were very unfortunate as although the foul had taken place outside the area, the linesman indicated it was in the area and that it was a penalty! Grant McCann stepped up and coolly slotted the ball away for goal number 5.

With Ipswich now down to 9 players, Jewell could only opt for a damage limitation exercise as they looked to fill their area with as many men as they could. With very little pressure being put on the home side, Posh could play the ball around at ease. Both full backs were now playing more as wingers as Posh passed the ball from one side of the pitch to the other looking for any gaps to appear.

It didn’t take long for Posh to increase the score when Lee Frecklington picked up the ball on the edge of the area before picking out Grant McCann who beat keeper Stockdale with a deflected right foot shot in the 56th minute.

Mark Little, who was having another impressive game, carved out a couple of openings for himself but couldn’t make the most of them, which would’ve topped off an incredible birthday for him.

Darren Ferguson changed things around during the second half bringing on two players making their debut in the form of left back Ben Gordon who is on loan from Chelsea and centre back Josh Thompson who is on loan from Celtic. They couldn’t have asked for an easier debut!

Some excellent work from Taylor tormented the Ipswich defence before flashing the ball across the area for another substitute, Ryan Tunnicliffe, but the Manchester United loanee could only hit the post as he looked to score his first goal in professional football.

The final goal came in the dying moments when Taylor again showed his quick feet and found Tommy Rowe in space in the area. Rowe tried to chip Stockdale, but the ‘keeper was equal to the initial effort. Lee Tomlin got a foot to the the rebound first and although his first effort was blocked he lashed home the rebound at the second time of asking to complete his hat-trick.